


>John: Completely lose your mind with worry

by OtherCat



Series: contra legem [2]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-04
Updated: 2013-02-04
Packaged: 2017-11-28 05:50:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,158
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/671008
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OtherCat/pseuds/OtherCat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which John worries about his best friend, his legal status, and his relationship with a certain legislacerator.</p><p>contra legem side-story</p>
            </blockquote>





	>John: Completely lose your mind with worry

Karkat sends you the profiles for Pyrope’s team and you spend the next few hours doing background checks on all of them. Coiver Oghami, teal, investerrigator, and all of his school records and affiliations, Axumen Tanqua, olive, medexaminer and physical evidence examiner, likewise, Pyrati Hammal, brown, questioned documents and computer forensics and Agneta Quidam, rust, paramortem technician. They are clean of any dangerous or suspect affiliations and from what you learn about Pyrope’s cases, they are a tight knit, professional bunch. Pyrope has done her own background checks on her team, but double checking their backgrounds are a priority since they will be on the flagship. 

When you get to the secretarial asset, you nearly have a heart attack. You’d known the slave’s name but you had gotten so used to disappointment that the last name hadn’t really pinged. But there’s his picture staring you in the eye. Dave. In your mind he’s frozen at seven sweeps, refusing to speak to you when you tried to see him before he was taken to the training facility. It’s startling to see how old he looks, which is a completely stupid thought to have but right now you can’t help it. His face bare and carefully blank, his shades hanging from the pocket of a slightly ratty looking suit coat.

Apparently, Pyrope hasn’t gotten around to switching out the picture in the profile, though she has updated his skillsets faithfully. She is having him secure scenes and package and store evidence in addition to other more usual administrative assistant duties. You can see that she trusts him, just from that, and the fact that she armed him. You want to believe that the trust is in him and not his training, but you don’t know enough about Pyrope’s character to make that call. 

You dig deeper and find out about a trial he was involved in. Dave had found himself in the middle of something heinously illegal and had decided to blow all the whistles. It makes you smile a little, because that is definitely a Dave thing. Whatever they had done to him hadn’t changed that part. You dig deeper than that, into his previous owners and the little you are able to find out makes you sick and angry. You sit there wanting to carve blood-eagles into every bastard who hurt your brother, and then write your report.

Off shift and over the next few nights, you start doing some serious digging into Pyrope’s history. You want to know exactly what she’s like and everything about her. You are possibly a little annoying about this. You want to make sure that Dave will be okay with her. She is one half of the Scourge Sisters and as much as you like Vriska, no one would trust Vriska with behavior mod. Once you get an overview of Pyrope’s background, you start asking her friends, quadrants and corners questions.

Vriska becomes cranky about the line of questioning when it heads toward whether or not she actually saw Dave when she visited her kismesis. “I don’t know anything about him! I never even saw him. She sent him to a team member’s house when I visited.”

“How come?” You ask her.

Vriska clicks irritably. “She trusts me, but doesn’t trust me with anyone else,” she says. “It’s really dumb! I think she was afraid we’d scare him.” She smirks. “Probably because we’d be loud.”

“Wow, that is totally something I didn’t need to know about you and your kismesis, Serket. Thank you so much,” you say in return, which makes her snicker.

Leijon spends most of the conversation trying to figure out where you and Dave are going to fit on her shipping wall. Kanaya assures you that Terezi has prior experience with behavior mod techniques and did very well in her classes, which does not actually help. (Deprogramming sucks if you know what’s happening when you’re going in. It is probably a thousand times worse if you don’t realize that’s what’s happening to you. You are not certain if Dave understands what Terezi is doing because you haven’t spoken to him yet.) You talk to Tavros who tries to be reassuring, and tells you about what a great quadrant corner she is (this also doesn’t help). You try to get a hold of Megido, but you get the non-asshole corner of her ashen partnership instead. He gives you a message from Megido stating that he should relax, and Dave is fine now. You are not satisfied with this, but have no choice.

Karkat corners you about it eventually. “John, what asinine human not-a-quadrant are you in with this Strider?” He asks a few nights later. You’re heating up leftovers in the food preparation area of the suite.

“The not-a-quadrant where you are basically best bros for life and you spend a really long time trying to find him,” you say, crossing over into the meeting block and folding up on the couch. You are suddenly so fucking tired. “Because when he found out he was going to the pool he shut you out completely. And you wanted to rescue him somehow but you couldn’t because you were just a dumb kid. That is exactly the not-a-quadrant I am in.”

The corner of Karkat’s mouth twitches. “So basically your human bromance thing.” You throw a pillow at him, he catches it and hits you with it. “By all accounts she is embarrassingly pale for your ‘bro,’” Karkat says. “You do get that you can ask her yourself, right?”

“I wanted background information, stuff she wouldn’t tell me,” You say.

“You know this concern looks awfully pale, right?” Karkat asks. “And probably insulting if Terezi finds out about it.”

“Bluh. Don’t tell me you wouldn’t be just as concerned. Probably more concerned,” you say.

“Probably,” Karkat admits after a few beats. “Talk to her when you get the chance,” he says.

You nod. “I will.”

You plug Karkat for information about Terezi, and even question Feferi. They are mostly tolerant of your persistence--they know what it’s like to lose someone. They use your questions as an excuse to question you about Dave. It occurs to you that they are just as concerned and curious about him as you are about Pyrope, for nearly the same reason. Is this guy good enough for Our Terezi? That is exactly the feel you get from the both of them. You also know their questions are a distraction. Like, remembering how Dave was when you were both kids will keep you from worrying about what he’s been through for the past four or so sweeps. 

You tell them stories about White Tank, about Dave. “When he came to White Tank, I’d already been there for half a sweep,” you tell them. “He was just this skinny kid who never talked and seemed to be inside his own head most of the time. I ended up spending a lot of time with him. He’d lost his shades in processing--his eyes are sensitive as hell--so I got him a new pair.” 

You tell them about class projects and school programs held for VIPs. They already know a lot of these stories but you repeat them anyway. You show them the few pictures you have of Dave when you were kids. A few of the pictures show him strifing. “He was really good with a sword. I’m kind of surprised he didn’t get put on a security track,” you say at one point. 

“Maybe it was because of whatever disqualified him for military service,” Feferi says sympathetically.

“Maybe,” You say in return. 

You finally exchange words with Pyrope, online and then in person. She’s sharp and maybe a little wary, like she’s wondering if you might be a rival. (She pretty much says it in your first conversations, when you tell her that Dave is your extremely long lost best friend.) You try to put her at ease while at the same time plugging her for information about Dave. You’re relieved that she is willing to allow you to meet with Dave. 

After talking to Pyrope, you debrief Lieutenant Braddock. Pyrope had circled wagons with Director Marcus and her security detail. This is extremely convenient though Braddock is slightly annoyed (but sympathetic) with you at having what was supposed to be a debriefing about the escort mission turns into a debriefing about whether your long lost brother seems mentally and physically healthy. 

“Strider seems to enjoy working for Pyrope,” Braddock says. “That might or might not mean something though. Pyrope appears to be extremely fond of Strider, and regards him highly. Due to some verbal footwork on his part when the question was asked, she’s probably disciplined him physically on occasion.” 

“Who did the asking? Was it Marcus?” You ask. You can’t help but feel a little twitchy about the mention of “physical discipline,” which is something you are definitely going to be investigating later. Right now you want to know the details about Marcus whose various charities include buying back slaves. (Which you completely approve of! You just wish the charities Marcus donated to did better background checking and follow up on cases. And that their re-education programs didn’t suck.)

“Her kids,” Braddock says. “We decided it would be better to let them be a nuisance in a controlled setting.” She goes on to tell you how Marcus had managed to sabotage the project by doing something heinously stupid. “Urgh, that woman,” Braddock says, exasperated. “The poor guy just gets finished answering a bunch of uncomfortable questions in a way that won’t horrify a kid and she comes barreling in before I could stop her.”

“What happened?” 

“She went all ‘oh you poor degraded person let me help you,’ and then offered to buy him from Pyrope. Then either his loyalty mods kicked him in the head or he decided to interpret her offer as an effort to suborn him,” Braddock says with a sour expression. “Which comes out to be the same thing, pretty much. It was not a pretty sight and I had to explain to her in small words what ‘trained to be reliable and loyal’ means.” She huffed. “I think she still doesn’t get it though, after all. It’s not like I know anything about the subject.”

“Pff, yeah. Just one of the many reasons she is Peixes’ best hatefriend,” you tell her. 

Pyrope doesn’t tell Dave who to expect when she tells him to report to the Heiress’ suite. It’s a surprise, you wanted it to be a surprise. And oh gods, is it. He stands and stares at you, not saying anything for what seems like hours and you are suddenly terrified that he doesn’t remember you. You stand up and take a half step toward him. “Dave? You remember me, right?” 

There’s a half-beat where he still doesn’t say anything, and then, “yeah, I’m just stunned you never got around to getting your stupid teeth straightened,” in English.

“All part of my geeky charm,” you say in the same language and then, “Dave.” 

And then you were hugging each other. “You’re alive,” Dave said. “How the fuck are you alive?” 

“The usual way, you asshole,” You say. “I’m alive because I killed the other asshole first. Do you have any idea of how long I looked for you?” 

“You looked for me?” Dave asks, his voice cracking. 

“Of course I did,” you say. “You should have let me help, you dumbass.”

“John, there wasn’t anything you could do,” Dave says. “Even if you could have bought me, it would’ve been fucked up.” He sounds completely reasonable and patient about it, which is actually kind of annoying, because it’s true. 

“You could have let me try at least,” you say. “Oh god, I missed you.” 

 

“I missed you too, but fuck you for surprising me like this. How the fuck did you manage to be in cahoots with Pyrope and what are you doing here?” Dave looks completely outraged about the surprise, but he’s fighting a huge smile at the same time. Then he looks around him, frowning. “Where did she go?” Dave asked. 

“She absconded so we could have a happy reunion,” you say. “Did you want to have her here?”

Dave looks briefly conflicted about that, then he shakes his head. “No, I want to know what you’re doing here,” he says, switching back to Alternian. 

“A while back, I took a bullet for the Heiress,” you say, nudging Dave over to the couch. “She decided she wanted human bodyguards.” You grin “Actually there’s a lot more than that, but it’s confidential. I’ve been serving the Heiress for a little over two and a half sweeps, so Pyrope knew me mostly as Chief Vantas’ chief pain in the ass. I didn’t know about you, until I got the complete profile of her team.” 

“Did the Lieutenant know?” Dave asks after a moment, frowning. 

“I totally would not blame you if you wanted to break my face right now,” You say, because the answer is, yes of course, stupid. “I wanted to surprise you, but I also didn’t want to cause any problems between you and the Neophyte.” You hesitate for a moment before continuing. “And there was the possibility you might not have remembered me or wanted to remember me.” 

“I would have liked some prior warning,” Dave says. “But it probably would have been a lot, on top of everything else. So I guess I’ll take a rain check on kicking your ass.” 

You take him to the officer’s lounge and end up in a private booth. For the first fifteen minutes of the conversation, you are a complete idiot. You have no idea of what to say or how to ask him the questions you want to ask him. Dave thinks this is funny. “John, stop trying to tip toe around everything, there is no way you’re not going to step on a landmine.”

You laugh. “I know. I’m sorry. I’m being dumb. I spent perigees imagining what I’d say to you, what we’d talk about the first time, I even thought about what we might argue about.” 

“I think I probably would have been the same,” Dave says. He’s quiet for a moment. “In a way, I have. One way or another, you’ve always been on my mind.” 

The comment does funny things to your heart. (You wonder if he still has a crush on you, and are momentarily embarrassed for your fifteen year old past self.) You ask him questions about his job, and previous owners. When you’re questions get too personal he lets you know that you should back off. That relieves you almost as much as it worries you. That he is still able to maintain personal boundaries and enforce them is a good thing. What worries you is what you know, or suspect is behind those barriers. You apologize to him and say, “I just--you were always by yourself, except for me and our friends, and that was mostly because I was always getting on your case.” 

Dave smiles at that. “Don’t worry John; you are not the only obnoxiously friendly person in the Empire. There were people I knew and even liked a little, but no close friends, and no one I really wanted to be intimate with.” 

He asks you questions about the circumstances behind you working directly for the Heiress. You tell him about seeing a sniper during a press conference and getting shot in the process of protecting Peixes. “I woke up in her quarters, which was kind of surreal. We ended up talking and she decided that she liked me. It was like ‘yes concierge, I’d like to have a sepoy officer and his entire command, have them wrapped and sent to my ship.’” 

“You ‘ended up talking,’” Dave says, brows lifting over his shades. “With the Heiress.”

“She is relentlessly friendly,” you tell him. “I was lured into a conversation before I even knew what was happening.” You talk about Peixes some more, and tell him about Vantas. You try to avoid the more intimate details, but Dave figures it out pretty quickly. 

“You’re with Vantas?” He asks with a frown. 

You wince a little. “If I were still as much of an asshole as I was back then I’d play ‘it’s not like he’s really a male,’ but I’ve since learned that line of thinking gets me in more trouble than it’s worth,” you say. Dave nods, and even gives you a faint smile. 

He asks you questions about Vantas and Peixes, and you start asking questions about Pyrope. You skirt around the issue of Pyrope feeling pale for him. You are more interested in your bro’s legal status at the moment. “Has she said anything about manumitting you?” John asks

“No,” Dave says. “Neither stated nor implied. She’s very generous with bonuses though.” He sees you aren’t happy and tries to be conciliatory and reasonable about it. “If she or some other troll were sponsoring me, it wouldn’t be that much different than being a slave, anyway, except I wouldn’t be able to legally act in the name.” 

“That’s not much of a trade--does that even count for non-trolls?” You ask him. “Does it ever really get used outside of dramas? It just seems to me if she really cared about you, she’d manumit you.” 

“I’ve used her authority as a Legislacerator before, yeah,” Dave says. “Pyrope has been...publically pale with me, so I’d say she really cares.” 

“Publically pale?” You ask him. You already know some of the details, but you want to hear what he says about it. 

“It upsets her when I’m upset,” Dave says after several minutes of silence. “It doesn’t make her angry or anything, she just wants to fix it. Even if she’s--she just wants to fix it.”

You are pretty sure Dave was going to say, “even if she’s the one who upset me,” there, before he stopped himself. “And?” 

“It just kind of--escalated from there? I think the members of her team were pretty sure she was pale for me, I mean, Agneta especially, but also Pyrati were acting like it was a given, but I was pretty much confused until she actually told me,” Dave says. He snorts. “I think I was pretty much confused after, too.” He tells you about a meltdown he had after shooting Ampora, and the way Pyrope took care of him afterward. He tells you a little about the first feeling jams he had with her, and about the way she had fussed over him when he’d been injured during the riot.

“How do you feel about her?” you ask, though you aren’t quite sure if it’s a good question to ask. 

“We’ve decided to define it as ‘like-like,’” Dave says, completely deadpan.

**Author's Note:**

> This fic has an [**ask blog**](http://contralegemasks.tumblr.com/ask).


End file.
